Dodging the showers to Kinver

 Sunday July 4 Independence Day in the rain!(4.5 miles, 6 locks)

The Navigation pub next to Greensforge Lock was very busy last night. We descended the lock in between showers, then passed Ashwood Marina, once a rail transshipment basin in days gone by. 

Ashwood Nurseries have a lovely private canalside garden, open to the public on Sundays, which we enjoyed on the way past.

John had his umbrella up and down as showers passed over.

There are steep slopes and rocky sandstone outcrops on the Eastern side, as the canal is on a terrace above the Smestow Brook. Rocky Lock is well named. 

 

This brook joins the River Stour close to Stourton canal Junction, where CRT were working on the bottom lock. Up these locks is Stourbridge, then the Dudley and Netherton Tunnels to Birmingham, part of the Stourport Ring.

Stewponey Lock has clearly been an important canal centre in the past. 

An old hexagonal toll house is on the CRT wharf, and there is a water point opposite, above the lock. The exit from the bottom of this lock is quite historic.

 

At 25 yards, Dunsley Tunnel is shorter than some bridges!

Hyde Lock is particularly scenic, but we had torrential rain to contend with at the lock. We followed a boat down here and at Kinver Lock, where a torrential cloudburst soaked us as we operated the lock and moored below it.

Drying out, having lunch and reading seemed the best thing to do!!